Road Transport

Early travel in Moreton was not on the roads as we know them today, although old tracks and paths, often with a good stone base, are still visible everywhere in the parish. Linking isolated farms and hamlets, they led to Moreton with its church, markets and inns.

W.F. Sanders holding the horse, and his brother-in-law is driving.Outside "The Cabin" in Pound Street, which was later burned down.

Wheeled vehicles came late to Dartmoor, sleds being used on the farms, and pack ponies being more practicable on the rough surfaces . The account given by Sir John Bowring of his journey to Moreton as a schoolboy in the 1790's shows this, though he exaggerates a bit - wheeled carriages were certainly crossing the moor by 1799 (see travel quotations).

The long distance routes went north and south of Dartmoor, missing Moreton altogether. The early route from Exeter to Tavistock followed the Teign valley, via Dunsford, Clifford Bridge and Chagford, to Postbridge and Two Bridges. Moreton's trans-moor route was a primitive track marked only by standing stones to aid direction.